With Enough Time
It was dark beneath the canvas covering my enclosure. On the opposite side of the fabric, the guests were arriving. The hall slowly filled with a budding hum of gossip.
“Have you seen her? I heard she’s unbitten. Is it a love match? His Majesty deserves this happiness.”
Perspective is a peculiar thing.
Gorvin’s words bounced incessantly through my mind, like a fly frantically tapping against a window pane—that this hardened tonic would become uncomfortable. And I would have to endure it as though I wasn’t in pain. As if it wasn’t painful enough to pretend to be happy while my family was held as ransom for my compliance.
A booming voice brought the crowd to a hush. It welcomed the guests, emphasized the momentous occasion, and promised a merry and memorable evening.
“Without further ado, may I present His Majesty Rhazien Kyrell and his prospect, Lady Reyva the Unbitten.”
The crowd erupted into applause and cheers and I was blinded temporarily as the covering was removed from my enclosure.
Every inch of the ballroom dripped with a gilded glaze. As if a mist carrying sun-soaked particles had descended onto every surface. The first night of Solstice celebrations had taken the form of a decadent golden winter.
And I was no exception. From toe to crown, I was a spectacle. A prize. A treasure. My skin was taut underneath the now dry resin, but from afar, I could have been mistaken for a lifeless statue.
Specifically, that of a precious bird, as I had been placed on a swing inside of a golden cage.
Gorvin said the symbolism would have a powerful impact on the guests. I simply saw it as foreshadowing for my future.
And like the cold metal I appeared to impersonate, I sat perfectly still and completely void of myself.
I was his decorative complement to Rhazien’s black suit. He bowed in appreciation to his crowd before turning and hinging even lower to me, the light blinking out from his eyes between the two audiences. As if I’d captured winter, I returned a cold, hardened stare but nodded to him as well.
Do your part and they won’t be harmed.
Sitting here—a prisoner in my own skin—felt worse than being first delivered to the Hive.
Guests ambled by in a slow, steady queue to catch a glimpse of the regent’s prospect.
“Our extensive compliments and grandest congratulations to Your Majesty,” a vampire woman wearing an obnoxious crown of bird feathers swooned. She dipped into a curtsey so low, I thought she would sink beneath the floor. The angle provided everyone with a view down her gaping neckline.
Rhazien, who stood within view but out of reach, nodded humbly and turned to greet the next guest in the lengthy reception parade.
I wondered if it was as clear to everyone else as it was to me how little he looked in my direction. While Rhazien didn’t give much attention to me, he did, however, look consistently over his shoulder to his right. Because flanking him, placed within my line of sight, was Dommik in his dress clothes.
Poised and postured, performing his own act as the ever dutiful commander. And alive. I hadn’t been sure he was still breathing.
I stared at him from my gilded cage, frozen beneath the shimmering paste painted on my body. Unblinking, I willed him to look at me, to give me a sign that he was okay. Thatwewould be okay. But that moment never came.
Anger burned beneath my opulent shine. Rhazien could order to haveDommik’s traces removed, but he couldn’t erase my memories or my feelings. Those were mine to carry.
The event carried on around me in slow motion. Each second dragged on from the itching, claustrophobic discomfort Gorvin had promised me. Rhazien moved throughout the room, greeting guests, gesturing to me, smiling and laughing as though everything was completely normal.
This world might not think Rhazien was as terrible as Eryx, but I saw then he was just as cruel.
Dommik didn’t enter my line of vision again, but I could feel him. My suspicions were confirmed when a guest greeted the commander just outside my cage.
The man who had killed my husband waited as I’d been wrongly incarcerated, manipulated me to relinquish myself to the Hive, and seen me through countless moments of terror since. But all of those horrible truths still brought me here. To him. To the brief time we’d shared. A time I would mourn as long as I lived.
For the sake of my swollen, breaking heart, I chose to believe Dommik stood there of his own free will and not because Rhazien wanted to torture him as well. He’d seen me decorated like the shining jewels he always compared me to and dangled me in front of the man he thought was a thief. But Dommik hadn’t stolen me. I’d given myself to him, and Rhazien couldn’t stand that.
Hours imitated eons, but eventually the party ended and I was escorted back to Rhazien’s chambers.
A bath had been drawn for me and as I scrubbed away the golden paste, Rhazien said, “You’ll do better tomorrow.”
